NBC’s Meet the Press with Chuck Todd was the No. 1 Sunday public affairs program across the board, and also the only show to grow year-over-year in total viewers (+7 percent) and in the key news demo (+4 percent). The episode featured interviews with three of the biggest names in Washington, Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
MTP beat CBS’ Face the Nation by +292,000 viewers (+8 percent) and ABC’s This Week by +927,000 viewers (+29 percent). Season-to-date, Meet the Press maintains its lead as the No. 1 Sunday show in the key news demo.
Face The Nation moderated by John Dickerson posted a year-over-year decline in total viewers (-3 percent) but a more significant drop in the news demo (-24 percent). The Super Bowl Sunday broadcast opened with an interview with Vice President Pence, followed by an interview with Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ). Next Dickerson spoke to DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the National Football League Players Association, and James Brown, host of The NFL Today and special correspondent for CBS News. Despite the No. 2 finish, FTN remains the No.1 public affairs program of the season to-date in total viewers.
ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos had a rough Sunday ratings-wise, -13 percent in total viewers and -24 percent in the news demo relative to the comparable Sunday in 2016. That said, This Week is posting slight growth from this point last year, and is drawing its largest overall audience in 18 years – since the 1998-99 season.
Fox News Sunday on FOX hosted by Chris Wallace posted a slight year-over-year decline in total viewers (-1 percent), but a bump in the news demo (+4 percent) with the Super Bowl LI airing on the network later in the day. The quartet of cable replays, airing at 2 p.m. ET, 9 p.m. ET, 12 a.m. ET, and 2 a.m. ET, combined for 3.58 million total viewers and 814,000 from the demo. Altogether, the episode delivered 5.18 million viewers and 1.34 million from the demo on Feb. 5.
This February 5th edition of Al Punto anchored by Jorge Ramos beat Fox News Sunday in the key 25-54 news demo for the second consecutive week. Additionally, Al Punto beat FOX, NBC and ABC’s Sunday public affairs shows among adults 18-34, and posted significant year-over-year audience growth in key categories, including adults 25-54 (+45 percent).
*Editor’s note: Face the Nation’s second half-hour was broadcast contiguously across 59.8 percent of the CBS affiliates.
The numbers for February 5:
| Network | Program | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| NBC | Meet the Press | 4.136M | 1.236M |
| CBS | Face the Nation | 3.844M | 912,000 |
| ABC | This Week | 3.208M | 864,000 |
| FOX | Fox News Sunday | 1.605M | 529,000 |
| UNIV | Al Punto | 1.105M | 580,000 |